Thank you to all our readers! So glad you enjoyed our articles. It always ceases to amaze me that we are truly a free internet based worldwide magazine!
Our readership comes from every corner of the planet.
Our top 5 countries include the US, Canada, Australia, France and UK, in that order. Our USA readership does constitute the majority and New Hampshire readers are at the top.
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Our Top modern Rifle Articles include companies such as Ruger, Savage, and T/C.
Top Scope articles are USA made Leupold Gold Ring Scopes, we love them.
Top Recoil pads include Pachmayr Decelerator with its 50% reduction in felt recoil.
Top Cartridge articles are 6.5 Creedmoor and 375 Ruger.
Top reloading/hand-loading companies are RCBS and Hornady.
Top hunting bullet manufacturers we like are Nosler, Hornady, Sierra and Speer.
Top bullet construction we like is partition/a-frame, bonded jackets, all gilding copper.
Top Flintlock articles on Jim Chambers Ltd Flintlock build.
Meat from a laboratory? Do you trust big business approved by the federal government to provide lab grown meat for you to eat? They say government approval is coming soon. Is that really beef you are eating? Where is our society going? Where is the connection to the natural world? If you are so dependent, I submit you will lose essential survival and leadership skills essentially becoming sheep.
It was COVID that urged many to try hunting! As a hunter, I like to see the animal that makes my meat rich protein diet. Hunting does that! In fact, hunters must understand the relationship of game and its surrounding field and forest, find the animal, make a clean kill, remove the guts, skin it, package it, and refrigerate or freeze the meat for future meals. The fruit of the hunters labor is celebrated when the game is in hand and at the dining table. You are the provider and you have first hand knowledge of the field care of your meat. Below, a wild pig taken with a crossbow.
Chops I cut myself for the table and freezer.
The process of hunting has provided meat for civilization for hundreds of thousands of years and it is family oriented, skill rich, survival rich benefits that nature can provide. Remove the survival instinct to forage and kill for food, and we become sheep, dependent on its master for food and protection.
During two recent episodes we as society were shocked that the grocery stores were closed. First recent episode; Katrina, that storm several years ago, so devastated the landscape that we humans were forced to forage and hunt for meat and have a weapon to protect ourselves and family.
The second event we are living in right now, COVID 19. Remember the meat and pork scare last year? Grocery stores for some meat supplies were bare! Panic meat purchases ensued. I have had such a successful year hunting that I was never really concerned for meat. My freezer was full of lean, organic protein rich game meat.
Making my own ground meat!
Do yourself a favor, learn to hunt, and forage, it is an essential survival tool. Along the way you will learn survival skills and trust in your own abilities.
Decades ago in one of “Outward Bound’s” Colorado ( https://www.cobs.org/)programs, students had to be alone in the woods for three days, called a “solo” and among other things you were given a live chicken. You didn’t have to kill it, but it was there facing you every day. Grass shoots and herb tea for three days or roasted chicken on a spit? Your choice! When your stomach wants food it sort of growls doesn’t it.
When I was 16 years old, I attended the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School (https://www.hiobs.org/) for 28 days, and learned survival skills and more about myself. I “solo’d three days on a small island off the coast of Maine. I did not have a live chicken but had access to mussels and sea urchins and sea weeds such as glasswort, plants bulbs like rose hips, plants like goose tongue, dulse, chicory and wild peas. No it was not manna from heaven but I grew to like it. I forage for wild edibles even today when i am hunting. When I was in Newfoundland a few years ago I had sea urchin eggs and wild peas on the shore. And lots of Codfish!
It was that pre Christmas storm here in New Hampshire, when I made this video to demonstrate my Sous Vide machine that utilizes water to cook. For those who have venison in the freezer like me, it cooks my venison just as I like it, medium rare. You can set the temperature of the water to cook meat exactly as you like. I cut some mushrooms to add to the cast iron skillet used to pan sear the meat. And it came out tender and juicy!!
Below is the venison dinner. I cut a piece of this medium rare meat, just for you!
I like to chef with my venison but it wasn’t till I hunted whitetails in Texas before I tried bacon wrapped Jalapeno poppers. My taste buds went absolutely crazy, when I ate one fresh off the grill or out of the oven. You use 1/2 seeded jalapeno with cream cheese, add a thin slice of marinated backstrap and wrap it in bacon and roast. It is not uncommon to stuff your popper with a taste of meat, and tender strips of venison backstrap is perfect. Below, I cooked these with jalepeno peppers, and for my wife I cooked with green bell peppers (no heat). Honestly, the heat in the jalapeno’s with seed removed is very mild and blends well with the saltiness of the bacon, cheese and venison. My wife’s comments were; “I could have these for dinner, they are so good!
I found this recipe below that ideally does justice to these poppers. I can taste them from here! If the jalapeno seeds are removed there is just a bit of heat but the crispy bacon, venison and smooth melted cream cheese comes through but be careful as they are addicting as all-get-out!
Key to the crispy bacon is to precook some that can still be wrapped around the poppers as the recipe suggests.
Of course you can add meat or not but it is the bacon, a bit of spice from the jalapeno and the melted creaminess of the cream cheese. I recently had some poppers with cream cheese and three cheese Mexican added to the cream cheese. It’s all good! I like a cold beer to chase it!
Many of today’s hunting rifles have standard height combs on the rifle stock. So you want to buy a new scope for it with a large 50mm objective lens to get more light at dawn and dusk? That’s fine, however your all important cheek weld is now too low for optimum eye alignment. Some think that raising your head a bit is ok. Not True. What you have introduced, without a good cheek weld is a variable that can move your bullet impact depending on how your hold and or rest your rifle and how your eye aligns inconsistently with the crosshairs. What to do?
There are several options. Some folks tape foam onto the comb. For me it is an ugly option. I prefer a slip on like Beartooth comb raising kits or Hornady. Many kits include height adjuster foam and have zipper pockets and bullet loops too.
Products like this are a great and inexpensive add-on. I like them a lot. If you aren’t getting one now, then put one under the Christmas tree!
During deer season here in New England the weather is ever changing, sunny in the morning and drizzling rain or snow in the afternoon. It is wise to choose a rifle that is somewhat impervious to moisture and that includes the barrel and things attached to it. My Ruger African .375 Ruger is blued but not highly weather/rust resistant by the factory so I use bowling lane wax everywhere on the wood and barrel before going afield. Let it dry and it has little odor.
I hear that a hunting guide in Alaska paints his barrels. It works but must be a bit ugly! Of course there is stainless steel but as a new rifle, manufacturers offer spray on rust resistant coatings such as Cerakote, https://www.cerakote.com/project-gallery?tab=color
Or for example my Weatherby Rifle barrel with Weathershield coating. This website, Haus of Arms has this video on the difference between stainless and weathershield on Thompson Center rifles. I Own two rifles with weathershield coatings. I love them both for weather resistance. Easy to care for and no rust.
Just remember that the intricate parts in your guns action are likely not coated so you must take care for these parts as well. I use a dry lube (not stinky) that has a solvent to get the oil where you need it and then coats to protect the surface.
I hear that Otis has a nice dry lube created for the military. Remington offers a dry lube too! Check them out! I use the Remington Dry Lube with Teflon! Very cost effective!
On waxes there are car waxes that work to repel rust and moisture from wood and steel and my bowling ball wax as well as commercial gun waxes by Birchwood Casey.
Yesterday was a slice of heaven up on Mount Major State Park near Alton Bay, New Hampshire. We hiked the main blue trail which is 1.5 miles to the summit at 1785 ft. Or 1100 feet high from the trail head.
My new Labrador puppy Bella is just about 4 months old and growing like a weed. Note for road trips in the car, be sure to carry some chew stuff as that helped Bella pass the time. Stop for potty calls and carry bags for her waste.
She was leashed and my companion for the hike to the top of Mount Major and she handled it like a champ! I took a backpack with a first aid kit and lots of bottled water, enough for both of us. I am teaching her how to drink from a water bottle with a pop lid. She gets it! Glug glug! I purchased a harness for her so she did not have any neck strain.
What a great day! Calm wind, cool autumn air with oak, spruce scents filling the air along the trail. Acorns were falling as we hiked and could hear them patter to the ground around us. You just wanted to bottle the air to take home! Mount Major is perhaps one of the closest and unique trails to hike and can be climbed by most anyone, kids and seniors alike with good footwear and those exercised.
View of Lake Winnipesaukee from top of Mount Major
Her blue harness took strain off her neck while on Mt Major trail
The harness was a terrific purchase and was aided by Petco folks to find one that fit her now, and added growth for her later. She loved the trip and hikers wanted to pet her (puppies do that) . Great socialization on the trail with other pets too. You need good footwear for the trail as there are loose rocks and granite as well as tree roots on the trail. We took our time and made the summit under 2 hours. It is very steep near the blue trail summit with exposed granite to walk up so be careful.
Love the kisses!
We stopped in Alton Bay at a Drive In style outdoor restaurant for lunch of fried Ipswich Clams and some dog biscuit and small vanilla ice cream for Bella. She loved the Ice Cream! She slept all the way home an hour and a half drive. We stopped a Calef’s country store for their famous thick sliced Virginia ham for wife and dinner of ham and beans and lots of cold beer. Wow! Bella chowed down on her puppy food!
I have always believed that if you hunt muzzleloader season in New Hampshire, then you have a leg up on the rifle season, and a best chance to get a shot at a big buck, or any deer for that matter.
Deer that are shot at, don’t hang around, or at least in daylight hours.
That said; muzzleloading is your best chance at hunting game which has not been spooked.
But there is more.
In Line Muzzleloading rifles are easy to purchase, very cost effective, and super accurate.
But don’t wait till the last minute to get your muzzleloader gear.
In the week prior to the season which begins in my Zone M on October 31, everybody is out shopping and finding few bullets they liked, powder that was out of stock. And they are sometimes mad that there was none left! Who is to blame for that!
WORD TO THE WISE
Be super ready now, shoot your muzzleloader and get all your gear now while it is in stock!
Stay clean, scout ahead, keep your hunt clothes away from odors that cling, and watch that wind.
